Source: The Imphal Free Press
Imphal, November 14:
The Governor of Manipur, Ved Prakash Marwah, is leaving Imphal tomorrow for New Delhi, where he will be attending the 7th meeting of the Inter-state Council.
The advisor (R), EN Ram Mohan, will be accompanying the Governor.
According to government sources, during the Inter-state Council Meeting, the Governor is expected to raise several issues concerning the state.
Among other things, the Governor is to press for opening of a second channel for All India Radio, Imphal and launching of a news bulletin on Doordarshan, Imphal.
According to the sources, the Governor will be pointing out during the meeting that the Union minister of information and broadcasting, Arun Jaitley's promise, made in Imphal on June 12 last, for launching of a regional news bulletin within 90 days is still unfulfilled.
Till the commencement of the regional news bulletin, making available of translated or clubbing news telecast to states like Manipur is to be sought.
The sources added that although the 24 hour Doordarshan channel for the north east was launched in December last year, it is still not available to 99% of the people in the state.
The Governor is expected to seek immediate action from the Centre to remedy this.
Among the proposals to be submitted to the council meeting for inclusion in the northeast special package include opening of a second channel of the Imphal station of AIR, in order to fulfill the aspirations of various minority communities for projecting their cultural identities, and strengthening, modernization and enhancement of the transmission power of AIR Imphal for increasing its broadcast coverage and also avoiding disturbance from the high power transmission from neighboring countries.
A proposal or upgradation and modernization of Doordarshan Kendra, Imphal and installation of LPTS and ULPTS at all strategic areas of the state, so that DD-I and DD-II can be easily viewed, is also to be submitted.
Further, it is to be proposed to enhance the local programming of DDK, Imphal by addition of one and a half hour of telecast from 2:30 pm to 4 pm every day, and to start a local news bulletin immediately.
Action is to be sought for uplinking DDK, Imphal with all the transmitters installed at places in the state so that local programs transmitted from DDK, Imphal can reach viewers all over the state.
It is further being proposed to provide facilities for screening of Manipuri films and songs on DDK, Imphal so as to encourage the talents of young film makers.